Truth Wins Out praised the Presbyterian Church for ratifying an amendment to its constitution allowing the ordination of openly gay people in same-sex relationships. After decades of debate, that church’s national assembly approved the change last summer, and last night the Presbytery of the Twin Cities (MN) cast the decisive 87th vote required to give the amendment the support of a majority of church presbyteries, or local governing bodies. “We applaud the Presbyterian Church for taking this historic step,” said Wayne Besen, Executive Director of Truth Wins Out. “It is our hope that other religious leaders and faith communities will choose to follow their example.”
With this vote, the Presbyterian Church joins other mainline Protestant denominations including the Episcopal Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and the United Church of Christ in accepting openly gay clergy members.
The last time the Presbyterian Church voted on the issue, in 2009, a majority of presbyteries voted against the change. According to the New York Times, 19 out of the church’s 173 presbyteries switched their vote this time around. “This rapid shift in favor of openness, inclusivity, and acceptance within the Presbyterian Church mirrors the trend in American society at large,” said Truth Wins Out Director of Communications and Development John Becker. “We are confident that the walls of religion-based bigotry will continue tumbling down.”
Tags: Christianity, inclusivity, John Becker, LGBT, openly gay, ordination, PCUSA, Presbyterian, Presbyterian Chuch, Protestant, relationships, same-sex, USA11 Comments »
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URL
I have waited 30 years for this, and it is a sweet moment!
The Presbyterian Church is one of the most respected in the nation, and it officially welcoming GLBT pastors, elders and deacons will get a lot of news coverage, and will affect not only its own members, but the debate among many millions more.
Most of the bias against us that is left comes from religious people…and, like it or not, we live in a nation where the overwhelming number of people are religious, and a world that is even more so. This, when combined with similar moves among other churches…Lutheran, Episcopal, United Church of Christ, means that when a religious wingnut makes the case for denying us rights based on his interpretation of the faith, we can now point out that it is just that…HIS interpretation, not THE interpretation.
That will shut them up and take away their power WAY faster than just saying you don’t believe in their faith, which only (due to their persecuted worldview) makes the speaker look “lost” and thus unworthy of real consideration.
Whatever ones faith (or none), this is HUGE, and a wonderful development for all GLBT people, and society as a whole!
Comment by Gene — May 11, 2011 @ 1:37 am
[...] TWO Praises The Presbyterian Church (USA). Read more [...]
Pingback by Barney Frank: US Should Oppose Uganda Aid if Anti-Gay Bill Passes; Obama DOJ Equates Gay Servicemembers with Drug Addicts, Alcoholics and Those Who Are Threat to National Security; New Illinois State Rep., Lesbian with 3 Adopted Kids, Will Fight Bigotry o — May 11, 2011 @ 5:36 am
Now if they would just do something about those pesky horrible doctrines that make Christianity so poisonous, like hell and predestination…
Comment by Brian — May 11, 2011 @ 6:55 am
@Brian — in order to do that, they’d have to get rid of Christianity, period.
Comment by WMDKitty — May 11, 2011 @ 7:24 am
Brian, WMDKitty, I have a lot of respect for athiests, and get along great with several in here. Many Athiests are really supportive of GLBT rights, and I appreciate that.
Some right wing nuts will troll sites like this, read comments like yours, and spin it into “Of course, gays don’t really care if the church accepts them, they just want to destroy our heritage” etc. etc. We have all seen this.
Some of you have been really burnt by the church. I get it. I am not even going to argue it with you. I have friends who are so bitter they want nothing to do with it, and if I had their experiences, I might be the same. But I have not.
I met my husband of 21 years in Church. 21 years ago, there were few places that welcomed us as we are, but, the church did, and I am thankful for it. And yes, it was a Presbyterian Church.
To be blunt, your bitterness towards religion in general is blinding you to a Huge gain for all GLBT people. Even those with no religious beliefs. This site is run by proud athiests if I remember correctly, but they see the value in this. We all should.
TWO Praises the Presyterian Church (USA)….and we all should be celebrating right now. Even those who do not believe.
Comment by Gene — May 11, 2011 @ 8:53 am
Gene,
The problem is this isn’t going to change many within the Presbytarian church. My brother is a member of the Presbytarian U.S.A. and his congregation is anti-gay and uses it as justification.
Comment by Tim W — May 11, 2011 @ 10:57 am
“The problem is this isn’t going to change many within the Presbytarian church.”
Dimmest statement I have perhaps ever read, that nothing will change within a group, in direct response to news of…change within a group.
Does Tim W believe that the 19 presbyteries that shifted their vote were all temporarily imported? Were they actors hired for this one vote? Not evidence of continuing change “within the Presbyterian church”?
I agree strongly with Gene, esp this: “To be blunt, your bitterness towards religion in general is blinding you to a Huge gain for all GLBT people. Even those with no religious beliefs.”
Comment by Joel — May 11, 2011 @ 11:22 am
Gene said “This site is run by proud athiests if I remember correctly.”.
I’m pretty sure Wayne is not an atheist. In fact I think Evan is the only one posting here.
Comment by Priya Lynn — May 11, 2011 @ 12:09 pm
Gene, I must confess to being rather snarky when I posted this morning, and yes I DO get it, and yes, you accurately understand how burnt I have been. I’m an ex-born-again with an enormous chip on my shoulder when it comes to Christianity.
Yes, this is a huge step forward, and yes, it will take several moves like this before the animosity and outright poison directed at LGBT from Christianity comes to an end.
Even so, I’m still left with this, as you correctly stated in your initial post: “That will shut them up and take away their power WAY faster than just saying you don’t believe in their faith, which only (due to their persecuted worldview) makes the speaker look “lost” and thus unworthy of real consideration.”
It just means that now that instead of hating me for being gay, they can still write me off as unworthy of consideration because of my atheism. I find it hard to be happy about the fact that now they can hate me on equal terms with everyone else who does not believe.
Yes, it is a step in the right direction, but they will have to do a shitload of work before they will earn **my** respect. “Gay-friendly” does not automatically make them my friend. I grudgingly concede the political importance of this step. I am NOT joining their fan club any time soon.
Comment by Brian — May 11, 2011 @ 4:03 pm
In other words, IMHO, the homophobia is merely a symptom of the greater flaw of Christianity, which is it’s unwillingness to accept any other view but their own (fundamentalism).
Comment by Brian — May 11, 2011 @ 4:14 pm
When I joined a gay inclusive Episcopal church several years ago, I told the (straight-married) priest that I was only there because they had full inclusion of women and lgbt people. I also told him that he had no idea how much rage against religion that there was in the gay community. He said, ‘that’s because we’ve hurt you so much’. At least he ‘got it’, but I wanted to say that ‘hurt’ is an understatement, psychologically crushing and spiritual rape was more like it.
Comment by Gary (NJ) — May 11, 2011 @ 6:06 pm